Re: New open source UML tool including Ada support

[Markus E Leypold <development-2006-8ecbb5cc8aREMOVETHIS@ANDTHATm-e-leypold.de>]

> On Jul 10, 6:08 pm, Markus E Leypold
> <development-2006-8ecbb5cc8aREMOVET...@ANDTHATm-e-leypold.de> wrote:
> [snip]
>> licensing. The problem simply is, that the page AFAIS doesn't state a
>> license (so I can do everything with the tool I want? -- strange) and
>> that we can't assume you get the tool under *GPL since you can't give
>> it to others under that circumstances w/o source.
>
> Well the Aonix press release states:
>
>          "Under the new open source policy, Ameos is available
>           under terms based on the GNU Lesser General Public
>           License (LGPL) as OpenAmeos."
>
> Which sounds promising to me! :-)

Yes, _promising_. But at the moment there is only an executable, no
source. And I have been wondering about the license this executable is
under, since anybody getting it, can't resditribute it under the
LGPL/modified-whatever, because, well he hasn't gotten the source (and
probably not not LGPL license too, because that would guarantee him
the source).

Murky legal questions are lurking there in the dark.

I wonder why people do things like this, instead of just going public
when the source IS there. Or getting the press release right (saying
the're now free-as-beer but intent to go open).

As I interpret the terms of use: This version, presently available is
free-as-in-beer. What will happen in future, we will have to see and
the press release is at least 2 weeks early: "is available" should
better read "will be available" -- and I notice they give no deadline
for that either.

(Does anybody remember OpenDOS, the former DR-DOS: Should have become
available as open source, first they made a binary release, there even
was some (non-compiling) source code available for a very limited time
under a not-so-open license. Said they needed to clean up. And they
cleaned and cleaned and after a number of months (more than 12, I
remember), they (I think it even was Caldera) decided that OpenDOS was
an asset and they decide not to open it up. Wow. Cool publicity
stunt. Not that I say that is what Aonix intends, but after more than
2 decades in the industry I believe only in deeds rather than
promises.)

Regards -- Markus